You won't be disappointed!

Wonderful Movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a horrid little film from P.R.C. Studios and I have to assume the P.R.C. stands for "Producing Real Crap". By no sane person's standards should anyone have given this turkey a 10, though somehow this has happened. P.R.C. is one of the lowest-budget film studios of its day and its best movies were below the quality of rival Monogram Studios (and that's saying a lot!). There films are known for having rotten sets, poor scripts and second-rate acting--they were for many in the movie industry the "purgatory" of Hollywood!! As usual, this film shows all the usual earmarks of a P.R.C. production, though its stars are a tad better than usual--as Sidney Toler and John Carradine (both veterans of the low-budget Bs) were on hand to give this movie a little bit of clout--but only just a bit. That's because Toler had just finished the Charlie Chan series at Fox Studios and hadn't yet signed with Monogram to finish the series--so he was free and in need of cash. Carradine, never really an established actor but a familiar face in low-budget films added a bit of color.Sadly, despite the low budget, the story wasn't very good either. The film is set on a tropic isle, though the natives look like extras from California and have, for the most part, American accents and hairdos. However, they are supposed to be seductive dancing girls working at a dive frequented by sailors. Two of them (Toler and his partner) are responsible for "losing" some treasure on a recent cruise. The truth is that they deliberately wrecked their boat so they could later claim the treasure. Oddly, they arrive just after there is a HUGE bar fight. So, what would you expect at this time? Yep, one of them plays Beethoven on the piano in this dive(!).Two other guys (Carradine and his sometimes friend) spend most of the time imitating Popeye and Bluto, as they fight and fight for no reason in particular. Later, though, Carradine gets the idea of trying to steal Toler's treasure. My favorite part of this (because it was so bad) was the world's longest close-range gun battle. Shot after shot after shot are fired at pointblank range--talk about lousy shooting!! In the end, it's one twist after another but thankfully the action is all ended when a monsoon hits and wipes out this god-awful island.The bottom line is that the print looks lousy, the plot stinks, the acting is generally grade-Z and the special effects are really, really bad. What's to recommend this film? Nothing. So why did it earn a 10?!

ISLE OF FORGOTTEN SINS (1943) aka MONSOON is another of those South Sea Adventures so beloved by Hollywood in the 'GOLDEN AGE' of the studio system. The best of those films was THE HURRICANE (1937) which we rated IMDb Ten**********Stars. Thats why this film gets Two**Stars for it is only twenty (20%) percent as good. The film though resembles more TYPHOON (1940) IMDb Six******Stars. That PARAMOUNT production was nominated for a Academy Award for Special Visual Effects. No chance of that with this film. The only thing PRC has in common with PARAMOUNT is they both start with a 'P'! Like TYPHOON this ends with a big special effects scene done with all the skill PRC could muster. Which means there is nothing 'special' about it at all. I have seen children do better in their bathtub.The participants of this film were either needing a fast buck or had fallen on hard times starting with Director Edgar G. Ulmer. Yes, the same Director who created the classic THE BLACK CAT (1934). None of that originality is presented here. Sidney Toler must have wanted to stretch himself from his CHARLIE CHAN roles at MONOGRAM. Hard to tell if this was good move on his part. John Carradine obviously was in it for a fast buck and phoned in his role. As for Gale Sondergaard she must have made somebody very angry at the major studios. At that time she had already won the Acadamy Award for Best Supporting Actress and would be nominated again. Though it was interesting to see her in a sarong and show off her attractive and feminine figure. That is the sole reason to see this film.

How to sum up this movie simply? John Carradine and Frank Fenton fight over Gale Sondergaard and over gold that Sidney (Charlie Chan) Toler and Rick Vallin have hidden. Its all set in the tropics and has murder, comedy, musical numbers, explosions, deep sea diving, fist fights, romance, and somewhere in there is the kitchen sink. I think about the only things not in this movie are aliens and tumbleweeds. Its a wild movie, so please don't ask for a clearer explanation since it would take too long.But the real question is how is it really? Its good, but not great. There's too much going on and at times it's a little too slow, which is kind of odd considering all that happens in the films 80 minutes. This is a classic "watch at 2 am movie" with lots of bad commercials and public service announcements interrupting it. The cast is good across the board. Carradine seems to be enjoying having the lead in an adventure film. Sidney Toler, forever etched in my mind as Charlie Chan is wonderfully evil as Carruthers, and a joy to see him on the other side of the law.This movie also has a shoot out used in It Came From Hollywood where two guys shot at each other, back and forth dying as they did so until the guns were empty. I thought it had been altered to seem awkward and badly done. Nope. The gunfight is here, exactly as it was seen in "...Hollywood".As I said, its good not great. What it needs is commercials to help break up the slow bits.

From it's wonderful opening with the credits on the sand to the Monsoon ending (and the use of Wagner's music for the underwater sequence; the opening of the Rheingold which actually takes place under water) this a great way to spend a little over an hour with two of Hollywoods most entertaining actors; Sondergaard and Carradine are both cast against type and are wonderful. As are Toler, Borg and Birell. A lot of fun!!!!I have the Alpha release which is worn but fine.